RECREATION IN THE FEDERAL FOREST RESERVES 



463 



laced with moss covered logs and stumps in place of 

 boulders until it seems to be trickling through a swamp 

 of greenery. It is a fine trail and the climb on easy 

 grade until you reach the last two miles. Nothing 

 could make that easy — owing to our late start we 

 made it between eleven and one, and the day was hot. 

 Only climbers know all that means. Then is when 

 vou grieve over every ounce of avoirdupois you have 

 l)ermitted yourself to acquire in the last ten years. 



Fortunately we had left our packs and sweaters 

 and had only our field glasses, pail and lunch to carry. 

 We were thoroughly weary when we reached the sum- 

 mit, but the \-iew was worth our pains over and over 

 again. All my life it will 



"Flash upon that inward eye. 

 Which is the bliss of solitude." 



()iir (.)nly grief was that we had no blankets and 

 could not stay all night and then climb the buttes. 

 I think we could have seen the world from their sum- 

 mit. We rested and explored for two hours and then 

 started back. The trail building crew were within ten 

 rods of the end when we met them, .^s they eagerly 

 asked how near they were to the top it was a delight 

 to cry. "The next turn will show you the lakes." It 

 is sort of dramatic to be in at the finish of any thing, 

 especially when that thing is a trail to cloud-land. 

 When we returned to the camp for our packs the 

 cook gave us some bread just from the oven to take 

 with us and a slice of hot bread and butter, the best 

 I ever ate. 



Picture a bit of meadow land, a white tent and a 

 fly ; under the fly a table, stove, little cook stand and 

 cupboard, benches, a rollicking baby of eight months 

 on a blanket on the ground, and a bright faced young 

 lady in overalls, and you have our cook and camp. 

 Her husband is foreman. The Ranger sent out horses 

 the next day to move their camp to the Hannigan 

 Trail. On one of them she took her baby and rode to 

 the next station thoroughly enjoying the primitive life. 

 These people understand trail building. There is all 

 the difference in the world between trails. After you 

 have felt of eighty miles of trail with your feet and 

 packed and panted over them you know that you are 

 capable of having opinions concerning trails. His 

 trails make the most elevation with the lowest grade 

 of any I have ever trod. 



On Heliotrope Ridge trail, which was not built 

 by the Forest Service, you do so much going down 

 when you are going up the mountain and so much 

 going up when you are going down to Glacier that 

 my friend suggested that perchance we had lost the 

 mountain and were going back. Unless he reaches 

 some special jioint of beauty by the down grade, the 

 provident climber groans over every loss in elevation 

 We reached Herman at seven p. m. and spent another 

 night in the cabin. Rising at half past four we had 

 breakfasted, put the cabin to rights and were on the 

 trail by half past five, too early for the flies. 



I never saw so much wild fruit as there is on this 

 trail. We counted thirteen kinds of edible berries, 

 quantities of blue and red huckleberries, salmon ber- 

 ries, thimble berries, red, yellow and black ras])berries, 

 blackberries, red elderberries, Oregon grape, silal and 

 two kinds of wild currants. For miles it is one vast 

 berry ])atch. We picked and ate. I thought for once 

 1 would ha\e all the thimble berries I wanted and one 

 can hardly resist the red huckleberries because they 

 are so ]iretty. We reached the Dickson's by eleven, 

 had dinner and visited until three, then started to 

 Glacier. It was a warm day and we had enough left 

 in our packs for supper so we planned to reach the 

 hotel about eight. It is the easiest thing to loiter in 

 the Washington woods by a mountain stream. While 

 it was still warm we took a nap on a bluff that was 

 deeply cushioned with moss and embroidered with 

 twin flower vine and bunch berries. It was more com- 

 fortable than most beds. \\^e were screened from 

 the road by red huckleberry bushes loaded with their 

 coral colored fruit. A hundred feet above us the firs, 

 hemlocks and cedars held a canopy of green over us, 

 their trunks like great pillars. At one side the grey- 

 green river boiled below us and on the other the 

 mountain rose steeply out of sight. The haze from 

 forest fires had filled the air, the sun was red in the 

 sky and the yellow light gave the effect of seeing the 

 world through colored glass. While we rested and 

 lounged we saw two men go down the road with 

 packs on their backs, prospectors probably, coming 

 out of one of the mines. 



On a tram]) like this you meet few people and 

 every one has a personal interest. On the Twin Lakes 

 trail, besides the trail makers, we met a jolly old as- 

 sayer going to one of the mines. He had a charming 

 German inflection, and his stories as we rested and 

 chatted were delightful. One story told was how one 

 winter they worked a mine all winter and there was so 

 much snow that every morning they had to climb on 

 the roof and put on another joint of pipe. In the spring 

 their pipe was "up in the air," and somehow his 

 chuckle gave you the impression that the pipe wasn't 

 all that was up in the air. 



The first day on the Shukson trail we met the 

 Ranger and received kindly directions. These, with 

 the packer I mentioned before, and the Excelsior 

 folks were all the people we saw on that three days' 

 tramp. The loneliness is what we enjoy. Some- 

 times we walk long distances in Indian file and Indian 

 silence through those still forests thoroughly happy. 

 Every forest incident is an event on the trail, a familiar 

 or a new bird song, a change in the trees or the flowers, 

 a dip in the trail, a lireak in the woods that frames a 

 mountain peak or a ridge, a miner's shack, a sign 

 board and trails, those composite imprints of living 

 feet, turning off among the tree shadows, a bit of 

 meadow, a burn, a slide, the deep breath of exhilarat- 



